Humanity's True Face
by Shanrock
Summary: Expressing an opinion isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world. Fortunately, some things make more sense when they're read on paper rather than said aloud.


**HUMANITY'S TRUE FACE**

Galactic Commander Mars strode tentatively down the cold hallway towards her boss' office, hoping that her latest research would prove helpful to Cyrus' plans. A thick manila folder was clutched tightly in her thin hands, and the sound of her high-heeled boots on the floor echoed loudly off the tiled walls as she closed the distance between herself and the office's door.

Stopping in front of the polished, wooden door, the redhead swallowed hard and straightened out her hula-hoop dress. She brushed a few strands of hair out of her ruby-red eyes, circled with dark rings from the fatigue of finishing her report. Raising a fist into the air, she knocked three times on Cyrus' door and waited with bated breath.

No response.

Mars was honestly surprised. She knocked again, thinking that she hadn't struck the wood hard enough the first time. Again, no noise from within the office.

Frowning, Mars tried the handle. Finding the door was unlocked, her frown instantly dissolved into confusion. Stealing a glimpse down the empty corridor behind her, Team Galactic's youngest Commander quietly eased the door open and tiptoed inside. Silence was her top priority as she gently closed it behind her, an almost imperceptible click sounding from the crack between door and frame as Mars looked around the lavish office.

Although every square inch of the walls, floor and roof was covered in fine white tile—like the corridor leading to it—the assortment of furniture in the high-ceilinged room contrasted strongly against the cold cage. Numerous bookshelves lined the two side walls up to Cyrus' desk, stacked to the brim with books on mythology, astrology, Pokémon research papers, the list went on and on. Made of rich mahogany, the bookshelves served to subconsciously invite a guest into the room, across the dark velvet, carpeted rug and up to the main desk, which in itself was composed of very shiny, refined cedar. Mars herself didn't really understand the concepts and complexities of interior decorating, but she had to admit effect worked. The touches certainly made the twenty metre walk less intimidating than it would've been without them.

However, these things weren't what drew Mars' attention. What her deep red eyes immediately took from the room was the complete lack of Cyrus.

This was another surprise for Mars. Most of the day, Cyrus would be at his desk, working away on the hi-tech computer stationed atop it or merely reclining in the large red chair behind it, reading one of his many books with his legs up on the table. Almost expecting him to jump out from behind said chair, Mars slowly made her way to the desk, enjoying the soft, cushy feel of the rug beneath her heels.

Stopping just shy of the handsome cedar desk, Mars realised that today was to be a day full of surprises, at least as far as her knowledge of Cyrus was concerned. His usually spotless desk—or so it had been every other time she'd been in here—had a mess of pages strewn over it.

_Is Cyrus having an off day or something? _Mars wondered, tapping the manila folder absentmindedly and reflecting on all the odd things she'd seen since she'd been down here, most notably the office's emptiness._ Hmm… he might've just had to use the bathroom really badly_, she shrugged, giggling quietly at the notion and peering over at the documents on the desk. She didn't feel guilty about prying; she was a Commander, so she'd probably be privy to whatever it was Cyrus was planning. _It's not like he has much of a personal life, anyways…_

Glancing around to make sure Cyrus was definitely out of his office, Mars reached out and scooped up the haphazard collection of pages. Her eyebrows twinged up towards her crimson hair as she saw that they were part of a speech Cyrus had given a couple of months ago. _What's he doing looking at this?_ she thought, her curiosity taking hold. Waltzing around the desk and running a slender hand across the polished surface, she lowered herself into the chair behind Cyrus' desk and started reading.

_We are all humans. Obviously. But as is the case with most groups, we are often defined by our actions. So, what exactly are humans? What are we?_

_We are weak._

_I'm not talking physically here. Whilst our physical strength certainly pales compared to many animals and most of the machines we ourselves built, it is our souls that are the weakest things about us humans._

_We are dishonest. We are greedy. We are manipulative._

_We are weak._

_But why are we weak?_

_The answer is simple; it's in our nature to be weak._

_It's often been said that "it's in our nature to kill ourselves". This statement could not be more correct. It's human nature to want to kill each other, if only because we want to be the last one left. We want to stand alone. We want to survive at all costs; to prove that we are better than the rest; to dominate. And those three things—dishonesty, greed and manipulation—are just a few of the methods in which we do this._

_They all ultimately lead to one thing, however; destruction._

_Destruction is the only tool mankind has ever used in its march towards complete and utter domination. Domination over other species, over the planet, over each other, and over ourselves. The desire to do so is inescapable considering the imperfect spirits of humans._

_And we do this with violence, in all its shapes and forms._

_Ugly, ruthless, unabated violence._

_Proof that we are weak._

_We, as a species, plow sightlessly forwards in the name of advancement, destroying everything that bars our way without a second thought. We ignore the cries of those we crush underfoot as we struggle to gain dominance over everything we know. We wipe out forests, eradicate entire species, and even vaporise our own cities to try and establish a sense of authority over the planet, over each other, over ourselves. We claim to act for the good of each other, but all we are ultimately doing is bringing destruction to our fellow man._

_The human species is more like a disease than anything else. We may be orders of magnitude larger than what we have come to know as the causes of such, but as a species, we are too similar for it to be coincidence._

_We secretly encourage the production of nuclear weapons, in order to protect ourselves from harm. And yet we only ever turn these weapons upon each other, upon ourselves, and even upon our own planet, even if we aren't aware of it._

_Why?_

_Because of our instinctually ingrained desire to dominate._

_Because a part of our very humanity is compelling us to bring about this chaos and destruction._

_We ourselves are almost single-handedly responsible for most, if not all, of the "problems" in this world. Our technological advancement has outstripped our ability to keep it all in check, and we are blindly following a path from which there may be no return._

_Not for us. Not for the millions of other species inhabiting this planet._

_Maybe not even for Earth._

_And yet, somehow, through all the problems us humans have brought to the planet, to each other and to ourselves, we call ourselves the dominant species on this planet. Ha!_

_This self-imposed definition of dominance could not be more wrong. Why, you ask?_

_Because we're weak, and the weak cannot dominate. The human soul, as a whole, is incomplete, lacking the necessary pieces to realise the fallacy of our actions._

_I'm not talking about our endless campaign for dominance, nor am I talking about the destruction we bring about in the process. I'm talking about all of our actions. They all have a negative impact on us as a species. And that's why we're weak; we cannot act without causing harm to ourselves. Surely, you're all wondering "how can all of our actions have a negative impact?"_

_Let me give you a bold example. It's a little thing called empathy._

_Empathy is supposedly the voice of reason in our souls, telling us to stop the destruction, to ease the pain of others, to extend a helping hand to the weak. It is the so-called voice of righteousness and selflessness that is supposedly one of the better characteristics of us humans. It extends and enriches our lives by giving us an intangible connection through which we can feel a sense of self-importance, as though people care._

_That is only the mask that empathy wears._

_Empathy is a curse. It appears to do good to us at face value, but over time it shows its true colours. In helping the weak we become even weaker than we already are. By attempting to prolong the lives of those we feel are disadvantaged, we are allowing our empathy to run rampant and bring about a slower, but no less imminent, destruction to our species._

_It's oddly fitting that ever since we as a species began to openly display empathy we have grown weaker and weaker physically. Our bodies have lost the evolutionary edge that we had gained over millions of years. More recently so in the last few decades, coinciding with the boom of technology we've experienced._

_I'm sure you're all confused as to what I'm talking about. If you want an even clearer example, next time you're on the internet, do some research on antibiotic resistant bacteria. These organisms have been been nourished by our empathy, and grown deadlier with our futile attempts to change heart—to be "good". We did not create these organisms to be so dangerous, but we handed them the very weapons them needed to bring our façade of authority crashing down around us. We are not dominant anymore; they are._

_And you ask how our empathy has led to this?_

_It was empathy that led to the creation of antibiotics. The desire to ease the suffering of those we felt were disadvantaged in one way or another gave birth to the will to pursue this path. The realisation that we could cure disease with just a few chemicals seemed to be the "come on, come all" cure to the suffering we felt as a species. And for a while, it was._

_But no more. The very safeguards we implemented to protect ourselves from attack have turned against us, now being employed by our enemies to make themselves more deadly than before._

_And it was our empathy that led to this problem, as it will lead to our destruction._

_This impending destruction only re-affirms that we as a species are weak, and cannot act without negatively impacting ourselves, whether immediately or in the long run. It proves how lacking the human spirit is._

_Perhaps the damage we cause with our empathy is attempting to tell us something. Perhaps it is trying to tell us to stop turning our backs on our violent natures in an attempt to seem like better people. Perhaps it is trying to tell us that a quicker destruction is preferable to a slow, drawn out one. Or perhaps, it is trying to tell us what I've been trying to tell you; that humans are weak._

_Whilst technology inevitably spawns tools for destruction, it is our actions that determine which path we take. The destination of destruction is the only constant for us. As of now—and possibly forever—the human soul will be too incomplete to find a path which does not end in destruction. Only when we transcend out imperfections will we be able to save ourselves._

_This is why I have looked to the heavens to solve the problems we have imposed upon this world. We are incomplete beings, unfit to hold our self-proclaimed position as the most powerful race on this planet._

_I have long accepted that I, too, am weak. No point attempting to deny or rebuke it. I am human, and therefore I am incomplete. It's futile to attempt to go against what one really is; hence why the world—and the human race in general—is in such a poor condition as it is today. By attempting to go against what we really are, we've only succeeding in damaging this world almost to its threshold of tolerance._

_This is why I have to do something. Our actions have thrown the world out of balance; it is no longer stable. I will find away to cure this planet from the disease which we are spreading across it. I will cleanse this world of the devaluing emotions which have damaged it so much. I will even reshape the world as I see fit, if that is what it takes._

_I know you may think I'm crazy, and maybe a tad hypocritical for saying that, but in essence, you couldn't be more wrong._

_I _am_ human, after all; the desires to bring destruction and dominate over all are a part of who I am._

_It's in my nature._

Mars giggled quietly as she read the last few lines of Cyrus' speech, before setting the pages back on the desk, next to her report. This was why she respected Cyrus so much. He could convey his thoughts about humans from an objective point of view—even expressing what she thought was contempt for them—but then he could remind you at the very end that he was still human himself. The way he was able to articulate his opinion on the matter whilst not being belittling about the issue of a human soul was one of the main reasons Mars has joined Team Galactic in the first place.

Shooting a final glance at the speech, Mars smiled softly and walked out of Cyrus' office, closing the door behind her with a soft _click._


End file.
